http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/Is_it_a_good_idea_to_use_Flat_Fee_MLS_Listing_such-93111Is it true that Flat Fee MLS listing cuts the selling agent's commission and reduce the cost of selling home. Can someone explain the advantages of selling the home through a realtor? In other words what would I miss if I list my home through Flat Fee MLS listing? Thanks in Advance. Senthilen-ushttp://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Home_Seller-08540-139097/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Home_Seller-08540-139097/WE're about to use a flat fee service. I'll let you know how it goes! Our neighbors used them to sell their place and gave it a thumbs up. They were in contract after 22 days, closed in 45. They accepted an offer that was 95% of their asking price, which was right about what we think our (similar) house is worth. So, I am encouraged. We're using mls2u.com which uses yard signs that say "Continental Real Estate Group" - you can't really tell it's a FSBO. Also, we had the option of having the phone # on the sign go directly to us, or to them. We chose to have it go to us. I realize that we're not getting all the marketing of a full service broker. I'm ok with that. I'd rather spend my time doing it myself, than give up over $10,000 in real estate commissions. Right now, I have more time than money to spare. I'm ok with making fliers, updating Craig's List continuously, e-mailing everyone I know, plastering signs up on the local grocery store, library, and train station bulletin board. I consider selling this house my own part-time job right now, and nobody cares more about it than I do.Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:30:08 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Ocala_FL-186229/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Ocala_FL-186229/No for these reasons: The phone number listed to the public is the borkers so you may or may not get any buyers. These listings tend to have FSBO signs in the yard and other Realtors will not show these properties to their clients unless they have a signed buyers agency agreement. What is to prevent the buyer from calling you directly after the showing? The buyer's agent is not representing you so when you get a contract you will need to have your attorney explain it to you.Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:55:47 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-61701-110448/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-61701-110448/When you list your home you can use flat fee but it may not come with a complete marketing package. You get what you pay for, basically your home gets put in the multiple listing service in the local MLS.Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:52:42 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Bloomington_IL-836604/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Bloomington_IL-836604/As you look at all of these answers, (mostly from realtors) ask yourself how looking for a new home has changed in the past 10 years. Open the home is an internet company. 10 years ago you needed a realtor to search the mls data bases. Then they could recommend properties based upon your preferences. That is not the case today. Buyers have taken that job from the realtor because of the internet. Buyers now call a realtor and tell them which properties they want to see, and the realtors "OPEN THE HOME" for them to view. Realtors are doing far less work for far more money. As far as listing with a realtor, what do they really do for you? They put your home in the MLS and write up a description and post photos. Not only can an owner probably better describe their own home, but they can probably photograph it better as well. Most realtor photos seem to concentrate on the furnishings and decor in their photos instead of the features of the property. A realtor will tell you that they will advertise your property to get the most exposure. Advertising does not sell property. Location, price, and condition sells property. They will hold open houses for you. Open houses were designed to build business for realtors. Not many homes are sold from open houses. Finally, ask yourself which home a realtor is going to work harder on to get to the closing table. Is it the $400,000 home that they make $12,000 on or the $100,000 home that they make $3,000 on? I am willing to bet the $100,000 is much more work. First time buyers generally have no money, grants and 1st time buyers credits, etc. On that $400,000 home, they do the paperwork and show up at closing. David Blumenshine with Open The Home provides you all of the benefits and services of a typical realtor, but does not waste money on advertising or waste time on open houses. If a client needs help preparing a listing for the MLS, he will help with that too. Real estate needs to move this direction or simply go flat fee. I commend David for being bold enough to make this move, and recommend David to anyone thinking of selling or buying a home.Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:28:31 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-800274/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-800274/For the most part in life, you get what you pay for. You must answer several questions only then can you decide what's right for you. Is this your first sale, what time frame do you want to move in, what is the fmv of your home, how did you determine that, do you know how to complete the disclosure reports, do you have an attorney to represent you? Do you intend to buy again, are you using a realtor on the buy side? Buying and selling one of your most significant assets, do you really want to go alone? Before you decide, interview some full sevice agents vs OpenThe Home. Ask about the agents availabilty, what is the avg. DOM of OpenThe Home? Limited services are just that limited, there's a reason why those fees are so low. There's more to this business than a sign in the yard and entered into the MLS.Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:50:44 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Benton_County_OR-580001/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Benton_County_OR-580001/http://www.realtor.org/toolkits/fsbo00 http://www.realtor.org/pac.nsf/pages/FSBOBanners http://www.realtor.org/prodser.nsf/products/141-319?OpenDocumentWed, 03 Jun 2009 10:09:07 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Normal_IL-776648/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Normal_IL-776648/Open the Home (David Paul Blumenshine) gives you all of the benefits of a realtor w/o the high commission. You get an MLS number and 2% back at closing (as he only takes 1% and the 500.00 flat fee as his commission). You can literally save thousands and he is with you every step of the way! Why anyone would pay 6% to sell a home is beyond me. We sold our house in 19 days because it was priced right as we did not have to worry about recouping the 6% we would have lost with a national chain/realtor company.Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:38:23 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Other-Austin_TX-309659/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Other-Austin_TX-309659/It depends on how much time you can put into the marketing yourself. Mainly you will miss the agent's networking capabilities, and showings by agents totally against FSBOs, which quite honestly seem to be many. However, there are some buyers who just choose to initially look at FSBOs with the perception, right or wrong, of a better value without dealing with commissions. You may want to check out the blog attached to the link below. http://www.trulia.com/blog/rockinblu/2008/08/thinking_about_doing_a_f_1Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:55:18 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Connecticut-613815/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Connecticut-613815/Steve says "I feel the FSBO is trying to cover up a flaw in the home which would need to be disclosed if working with an agent"... So Steve are you calling all FSBO sellers Lairs? That's what it sounds like to me. I am a very successful flat fee broker in CT that is focused on helping sellers market their homes online. Most home buyers are looking "online" or with agents using the MLS. So the bottom line is that IF the house is priced right and IF it shows well, It will sell. Period! Ask any traditional agent... they tell their sellers the same thing. The only reason a seller should go with a traditional broker is if they feel uncomfortable handling showings, negotiating offers, or just have no idea how the selling process works. For those folks, I recommend using a "full service" broker (which I can do too). It's all about them!Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:42:40 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Normal_IL-688275/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Normal_IL-688275/Senthil, You should check out FSBO Local to sell your home FSBO. I just sold my home through FSBO Local in 4 days and saved $7000 in commissions.Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:21:12 -0700http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-230872/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-230872/Senthil and LTV, as a professional real estate agent I believe a home owner has the right to sell their own home without using a professional agent workingfor them. In fact in my seven years in the business I've worked with one buyer who bought a FSBO property. And the seller paid my brokers fee. But I don't go out of my way to show homes not represented by another agent. I feel the FSBO is trying to cover up a flaw in the home which would need to be disclosed if working with an agent. When listing a property for sale, I have a complete marketing plan for the property. And this cost money and time on my part. I don't charge a fee unless the property sells and then I don't get paid till closing. Unlike most other workers that get paid weekly or bi-weekly for the hours they put in at work. They can even get paid if the don't finish all their work in the week. Hmmmm LTV can I have your job? As for a flat fee agent you need to ask them if they will do my 120 day marketing plan for the fee they will be charging you. Any REALTOR can put a sign in the yard and put the information on their MLS. In todays market it takes an aggressive marketing plan to sell a home. I'm not going to gloat about myself or take myself too seriously. Because "it's not about me"Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:42:22 -0800http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Glendale_CA-54633/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Glendale_CA-54633/Senthil Here are some facts to consider when evaulating who should sell your home. On a quarterly basis I compare the performance of full service brokers versus MLS Entry Only and Limited Service brokers. I have been conducting these surveys for two years and the results are very consistent. First, the job of the listing agent (the Realtor that represents you in the sale) is to do three things: a) make sure that the property is prepared for sale (cleaning painting staging, photography, etc.). b) Create a marketing campaign that will promote the features of the property that hold the most value to buyers c) Negotiate the best price and terms for the seller. Second, when you decide with whom you are going to list your home, how will they do these three things? MLS Entry brokers are TELLING YOU that they don't do this. I cannot tell you how many posts we see from sellers who have questions. Questions that should be answered by their Realtor, but instead they post on Trulia because their broker is online. So, confronted (in most cases) with the first three things NOT being done well, what are the results IF you listed with an MLS Entry Only or Discount broker? For the period ending Dec 31, 2008 Listings sold by Full Service Brokers 886 by others 12 % List price to sale price sold within 30 days Full Service 99.37% Others 95.96% Listings the expired - Full Service 889 Others 20 Summary Over the past two years listings that are listed by MLS Entry Only and Discount Brokers FAIL TO SELL more often than Full Service. Stats are difficult when there are only 10-20 listings to use, but the trend is the same. Also, listings that are SOLD by MLS Entry Only or Discount Brokers sell, on average for about 3-4% LESS than those sold by Full Service. This is where the issue of what to fix up, how to who, how to market, comes into play. Just this one fact alone makes working with anyone other than a sharp, full service, Realtor a questionable move. The reason you are considering a flat service broker is to, at the end of the transaction, net more money. Lastly, homes have longer listing times. So if you don't really need to move, have extra money to burn, and don't mind if it takes longer...then go for it. I suggest interviewing three sharp Realtors, compare their proposals, and go from there.Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:48:11 -0800http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-604778/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-604778/Hi Senthil, What I would suggest is that you sit down with a flat fee Brokerage firm and ask what exactly he is going to do for his fee and then sit down with Realtors from other Brokerages in town and ask what they will do for their fee. Obviously it is your money and your decision and I would highly recommend getting all sides to the story before you spend a penny. I'm sorry that 110% LTV has such a poor view of Realtors. I know that local Realtors such as myself, Greg, Julie, Melanie and Steve put in long hours to help their clients to achieve their buying or selling goals. Milt Emerson, Coldwell banker Heart of America Realtors 838-1810Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:44:10 -0800http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Boston_MA-671438/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Both_Buyer_And_Seller-Boston_MA-671438/Flat Fee is the way to go. Why in the world would you pay any more for a Realtor? I love to hear all these Realtors try to convince you that they actually provide anything other than a free magnet/calendar when you use them.Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:56:22 -0800http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-309522/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-Bloomington_IL-309522/Tony below is correct... I could not have said it better. In most business dealings you get what you pay for. The same is even more true in the sale of homes and the hiring of a full service Real Estate professional. Full service means full service and discount or flat fee means just that. Either some services are missing and/or other services are minimal. With a full service agent/company you get the listing entered in to the MLS, advertising in news papers and on the internet, open houses held if you want, showings by your agent and the 100s of other local agents, help with offers, negotiations and trouble shooting of problems that may arise and much more. Call me to talk more if you would like. Thanks, Greg Zavitz Coldwell Banker Realtor 309-275-4734Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:54:05 -0800http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-48170-173414/http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-48170-173414/Realize you are still probably going to have to pay the buyer's agent his commission - otherwise a lot of those agents won't show your home to prospective buyers. In addition, you ONLY would get your home put on the MLS. You miss out on additional exposure, and you miss out on the expertise a good realtor could apply towards your transaction. In other words, you get what you pay for.Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:51:27 -0800